The Head The Antennae – can be found on top of the

The main visible parts on the head are insect’s head. The job of the antennae is for
the large compound eyes, the antenna
(feelers), and the mouthparts. On the the sense of touch or to detect odors.
grasshopper, the antennae are long and
thread-like. Grasshoppers have chewing-type The Head – The insect’s head makes up the
mouthparts, but other insects may have first part of the insect’s segmented body. The
sucking, rasping, or undeveloped mouthparts. head of insects’ species is of different form and
size.
The Thorax
The thorax is the middle region of the
body, and it bears the legs and wings--if wings The Eyes of Insects– some insects have eyes
are present. The front wing is long, narrow and know as simple eyes. These eyes appear as
somewhat leathery on the grasshopper. The small swellings. Insects can have 2-3 simple
hind wing is membranous and folds like a fan eyes that are used in the detection of light. An
under the front wing when the grass hopper is
example of these insects is dragonflies.
not flying.

Almost all insects have a pronotum Insects with compound eyes have several
covering the top of the first segment of the eyes, each eye contains a cone, lens, visual
thorax, but it is usually not as big as on a cells and pigment cells that are sensitive to
grasshopper. On the grasshopper it looks like a light. And insect’s eyes that are compound
saddle behind the head. Near the base of the
contains thousands of ommatidia that collect
middle leg, there is a small breathing hole
called the thoracic spiracle. Insects breathe information then transferred this information to
through spiracles and not through their mouths. the insect’s brain. The details of this
information are determined by the image that is
The legs of different insects are adapted to do affected by the number of ommatidia that is in
different things. The legs of some insects are the eyes of some insects.
adapted for swimming, burrowing, jumping, or
grasping. The thorax is the middle or mid- Colors such as blue, ultra-violet light and
section of the insect. The thorax holds the green-yellow are brought about by the
wings, head, abdomen, and legs of an insect. ommatidia that contain pigments.

The Abdomen Mouthparts – The mouth of insect differs,

The abdomen does not have many some insects have piercing-sucking
outstanding features on most insects. It just
looks like a series of similar-looking segments. mouthparts that are like a hypodermic needle.
On some grasshoppers, there is a large round Examples of these insects are thrips,
disc on the first segment next to the thorax. It is whiteflies, and mealybugs. These insects
called a tympanum and is the grasshopper's pierce the leaves and suck the plant juice.
ear. If you look closely at the other abdominal Some insects like thrips have been known to
segments, you can find a pin-hole on the side
of each segment. They are abdominal transfer virus in this way because their saliva is
spiracles and are also used for breathing just toxic to plants
like the spiracle on the thorax. The abdomen
contains the insect’s genitalia. Then you have the chewing insects that feed
on garden plants by eating the leaves and in
some cases the stems of succulents.
Grasshoppers and beetles fall into this separately from each other, but rather instead
category. pool their light together to produce one single
erect image at the back of the eye.
Siphoning- There are insects that have Indeed, apart from an external aesthetic
tongues that are shaped like coils. These coil- similarity, with an array of facets positioned
like tongue reaches into the flowers of plants around a convex structure, the two compound
and sucks the nectar. In this group, you have a eye types differ greatly in how they work.
butterfly and bee.

Sponging insects such as the housefly secrets The main difference

is most evident in
saliva over the surface of the food, as the food
how the two eyes’
is being dissolved by the fly’s saliva the
ommatidia process
liquefied food is drawn up into its mouth. light to form an
image. In apposition
Wings – The insect’s wings are responsible for eyes each
helping the insect to take flight as a means of ommatidium consists of a thin, tapered tube
protection also reaching high up places to feed. capped with a cornea, beneath which is a
Insects that reach adulthood have 2 pairs of transparent crystalline cone through which rays
wings except for flies that have 1 pair.The converge to an image at the tip of its receptive
wings of some insects have scales or fine structure, referred to as the rhabdom.
hairs. Also, some insects have hard or leathery Each ommatidium is hexagonal in shape
wings while some are membranous. and lined with pigment cells, which act as a
light barrier between each tube. Because of
Legs – Adult insects have 6 legs. These legs this, each ommatidium only receives an
are designed for running, climbing, jumping or incredibly narrow proportion of incoming light
walking. Each segment of the thorax bears 1 from directly in front of it, each contributing a
small part of the overall picture.
pair of legs.
In superposition compound eyes,
Allowing for an incredibly wide viewing however, beneath the optical elements there is
angle and the detection of fast movement, a wide transparent clear zone, unimpeded by
compound eyes are highly technical pigment cells. This means that unlike
biological structures. apposition compound eyes where the
ommatidium form small isolated images to be
Compound eyes are made up of
pieced together at the brain, the optical
numerous small optical systems arranged
elements in superposition eyes superimpose
around the outside of a convex surface. There
all light rays received across the ommatidia to
are two different types of compound eye:
form one erect image on a deep-lying retina,
apposition and superposition. The former is the
only then having the whole image sent to the
more common and works by having each
brain for processing.
photorecepting system (the eye’s ommatidia)
independent from every other, each viewing
light from just a small part of the overall picture,
only to be then pieced together by the brain
into a comprehensible whole. This differs from
superposition compound eyes where the
individual optical systems do not work
 image, while superposition eyes create one
whole image.
5.Cambrian – Apposition eyes are almost
certainly the original type of compound eye.
The oldest eyes found are from the trilobites of
the Cambrian Period (542-488.3 million years
ago).

There are benefits of each type of Mandible (insect) Insect mandibles are
compound eye, compared to each other and a pair of appendages near the insect’s mouth,
standard lens-bearing eyes as sported by and the most anterior of the three pairs of oral
humans. The main benefits include a very appendages (the labrum is more anterior, but
large viewing angle – due to the convex array – is a single fused structure). Their function is
fast movement tracking due to the amount of typically to grasp, crush, or cut the insect’s
photorecepting units that do not have to food, or to defend against predators or rivals.
individually move to track, and the ability to Mandibles are the paired jaws of some
detect the polarization of light. However, insects and other arthropods. They are
negatively, because the individual elements sometimes referred to as simply 'jaws'. They
are so small, due to the principle of diffraction operate in a sideways fashion and are used for
of light, resolution in compound eyes is gripping, biting and cutting.
considerably worse than in normal variants
with large lenses (this is why astronomical   The earliest insects had chewing
telescopes have such large lenses or mirrors). mouthparts. Specialization has mostly been for
The main benefit of superposition eyes over piercing and sucking, although a range of
apposition eyes is their ability to deliver a specializations exist, as these modes of
picture in lower light conditions due to the feeding have evolved a number of times (for
convergence of gathered light rays. example, mosquitoes and aphids (which
are true bugs) both pierce and suck, however
Top 5 Facts About Insects Eyes female mosquitoes feed on animal blood
1.Eye-spy – There are ten eye layouts falling whereas aphids feed on plant fluids).
into two categories. Simple eyes have one A Proboscis is a part on insects that
concave photoreceptive surface, while helps them feed. The proboscis can also be
compound eyes have a number of lenses on a used for reproductive issues, say for instance,
convex surface. a mosquito uses its proboscis for feeding and
2.Seven – Simple eyes such as those of reproduction. This article has no Info box or
humans are very common on Earth and have has a bad picture or no picture at all and is a
evolved at least seven times from just a small stub. A proboscis is an elongated feeding tube
grouping of photosensitive cells. attached to the head of an animal. The most
well-known example of a proboscis in insects is
3.Mosaic – Adult dragonflies can have 30,000 the feeding tube used by adult butterflies and
ommatidia, giving them incredibly detailed, moths. The proboscis is a tube made by the
mosaic-like images to process. The quantity elongated maxillae of the butterfly, these are u-
also grants them excellent movement sensing. shaped and held together with hooks to form a
4.Different forms – Compound eyes come in tube. Proboscis may also be used to describe
two forms. Apposition eyes work by combining the elongated mouthparts of flies and weevils
individual points of info together to form an etc
 Cerci (singular cercus) are paired
appendages on the rear-most segments of
many arthropods, including insects and
symphylans. Many forms of cerci serve as
sensory organs, but some serve as pinching
weapons or as organs of copulation. In
many insects, they simply may be functionless
vestigial structures. Cerci (singular Cercus) are
paired appendages on the abdomen of many
species of insect. Cerci perform a sensory
function. The size of cerci varies between
species with some having barely discernible
cerci while others, like earwigs, having stout
and obvious cerci (sometimes called pincers).